Crawling through the vent, I could hear the creatures screaming behind me.  With bated breath, I kept my progress through the open system like a worm.  The fright of that place.  It landed. I retched against the wall of the duct and held my palms over my face. Everything was silent.  A tear slipped from my cheek and hit the floor.  It splatter into a million faces peering back at me; pain inscribed in their guise.  The screaming it came back, I couldn’t give myself a second to cry.  I had to get away from those horrors.

It was very dark inside this air-conditioning vent. However, eventually the floor became fibrous tissue. The smooth muscle quivers as I slide over the meat of this alien floor.  Soggy half dried blood adheres to the arms and legs with every plod I take.  Greedily attempting to hold me back as if warning me, “Don’t venture this way.” But regardless, I heed not its warnings. The harsh stink of iron and bile fills my lungs. In fact, I could practically taste the odor on my tongue. Eventually the flesh vent opens up to what I can hardly describe this place; maybe it is best described as being inside a body of some sort. I perceived this was not correct though as the composition of the cave was rectangular and I have never known an animal with a square body.

Pools of blood built up on the ceiling, gathering in spots upon it before breaching the tension and burst to the floor.  Long streams of fluid splashed down as in further soaked into the moist floor. In shock, I tread where no man should ever walk and instead move devils may go. Mystified by the abomination, I slip through the halls of breathing tissue. There in the distant I could see something, a machine. It turned out to be working on something. I could not quite see what the machine was working on. It stood no taller than me, but it did not look welcoming either.  The machine sliced at the floor with one arm wounding the flesh. As the gash rapidly healed between slashes, the other three arms sparked, soldering whatever it was working on.  Not wishing to run away from another thing, I determined it best to leave through the passageway ahead.

I turn down another hall instead. This one had a sign, and I could read it. 

“This way for the exit. Look out for Mr. King-Lazy-Bones…”

“Huh, that’s weird.” I said aloud to no one.  I glanced down the organ’s path.  The shadowed hall looked to stretch on to a wide room. “I don’t like this.” As much as I loathed to admit, I felt I had to go that way, regardless. With a heave, I braced myself for what was to take place down this passage. Once inside the chamber there were several gates leading to dark halls. In the heart of the room rose a man with long arms and a mighty grimy tethered coat that enclosed him. I stare at the behemoth. Turning its head toward me, it revealed a malicious expression like that of a skull.  Its head was as blood red as the walls of this place. On the other side of the room is a heart chamber that prompted me of a fleshy subway tunnel. The only trouble was the hulking thing between me and that channel.

Taking a stride, the creature let out a loud snort. The hellion turns its head in my direction and rattles its jaw.  I stayed hushed and felt my bladder give way.  A flood of warm urine ran down my leg. I am powerless as the thing bends down like a ferocious demon seeking flesh. There are not words to illustrate the dread I knew in that most terrifying of moments; I’m cemented in place, bound and gagged. Closer it leaned in. Its glassy white eyes gaze straight at me and salivating jaws raining slobber onto the floor; chattering, those teeth.  Rotted meat and putrid sulfur washed over me as its rancid humid breath while “Mr. King Lazy Bones” brought its face mere inches away from me.   Soon I would be bit in half. Roaring in torment. Though I am not certain which half would be me. There in silence I stood gripped in my palms, preparing for my death.

“Raaaaa!” he roars. Still held bound by fear, I saw the man look in another direction. “Raaaa!” it let loose another shriek as it spun. The creature stood watching in every direction. “Raaaaaaa!” I go to make another step, I felt the dried blood on my boot raise with my tread.  Snapping noisy tethers break, returning the living thing to my side and gnashing his teeth with all the humor of a mad bull.

This time though, it didn’t daunt me because I suspected it was blind and could not see me. I knelt low and grasped a bottle that had been molded into the ground. The bottle ripped out with ribbons of flesh snapping. When I rose to my feet, the monster was in front of me, inches from my face.  That horrible scent made me recoil.  Looking at the center of its face, I saw a hole where his nose should be.  His eyes looked as though strained, it grieved the tendons in his face.

Its lumbering form overtook me as it rose. The worst part was its fetid breath. Not even a sewer did it justice. I drew back with the bottle and hurled it across the room. As soon as I did, the creature flew to where the bottle landed, black veil floating like some devilish entity.

Pouncing on the splintered bottle, it plucked up the shattered glass. The thing stood upright blocking my view and shrieked bloody murder. Slowly, I started my way to the exit. That’s when the thing bashes the living hell out of the broken bottle. It threw the pieces all around the room. I could not take my eyes off it. Images of myself being torn limb from bloody limb entered my mind. The brutality of this thing. Smashes, and crushes as my lungs met the open air. I would not be going so gently, no, I certainly would not be staying for that thing to pound me to pieces. Running for the gate, I sprinted as fast as my feet could take me.

My steps were quiet and small while that wicked thing continued its outburst. The bloody floor popped and sputtered as I ran over it as if running over dough. I was at the gate when I noticed it had ended. Slowly I twisted my head, not wishing to look. Deep in my abdomen I felt its gaze. Its head swiveled to match mine and violence was in its eyes. Lifting its head in a stagnant manner, it points right at me. A loud hiss volts into my ears as it keeps me in its horrible sight, as if it could see me now. The gaze does not ease off, not even for a moment.

The deadlock lasted for what seemed like it was forever. Like looking into a hound’s trawling maw moment before it lungs. And lung it did. It was like I blacked out for a moment. I am running down the hallway as the metal and flesh appear to gradient. Stupidly, I glanced back to see the creature getting closer and closer, bracing to rip my head off.

Finally, I reach a doorway but the devil was nevertheless close behind and suddenly like that, it stopped. Looking at me from the verge it snarls, turns, and enters back into the seclusion. “Oh my gawd. Holy shit.” I said, catching my breath. “King-Lazy-Bone, right?”

Glancing up at the ceiling revealed light. The ground was still tumors, and it was creeping up the hall, but the ceiling that had concrete, and that was some normalcy to this bizarre place. I strolled a slightly further till I arrived at a staircase. It opened up to another part of town. My sight meets an old collapsed bridge that leads to a wasteland, a road, and an abundance of ruined buildings.

I got out of the tunnel and decide it is best if I look for some place to sleep. As I walked out, I notice some other mutant beings, but they either had not noticed me or lacked interest. Either way, I was glad that I did not have to contend with their chase.

Eventually an alleyway find me, and I decide it was a place to could lie down. It coiled in like an L. The kind of place I could lie down for a while. So I did in the covert little spot, making sure nobody was following me.